EPA Honors Three Universities for Sustainability Projects

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New York -- Providing clean drinking water for villagers in Ghana and Honduras
and harnessing ocean wave energy are projects that demonstrate the promise
of sustainable development and the enthusiasm and ingenuity of engineering
students from three regional universities.

Columbia University and Cornell University in New York and Stevens
Institute of Technology in New Jersey have received Honorable Mention
designations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
for their projects submitted for the 2007 “People, Prosperity
and the Planet Student Design Competition for Sustainability (P3).”

“The Columbia, Cornell and Stevens Institute students in
this competition took their ideas about sustainable design and
ran with them,” said EPA Regional Administrator Alan Steinberg. “Their
projects illustrate that sustainable development is not just a
possibility, it’s a reality that can be applied here and
in countries around the globe.”

EPA’s program “People, Prosperity and the Planet,” focuses
on benefiting people, promoting prosperity, and protecting
the planet through innovative designs that address sustainability
challenges in the developed and developing world. The competition
has two phases. In the first phase, interdisciplinary teams
of students competed for grants to support the research and development
of their projects. Each of the three honorees had received
a $10,000 grant from EPA to support those efforts and the development
of prototypes. In the second phase, the teams attended the
National Sustainable Design Expo in Washington, DC at which their
projects were subject to peer review. The Columbia, Cornell
and Stevens Institute projects received their honorable mention
designations at this year’s awards ceremony held recently
at the National Academy of University of Sciences in Washington,
D.C.